I was wondering what the trick had to have been! Many
years ago Paul Kroeger picked up a second hand one from
the UBC auction for a mere $100. Needless to say, both
he and I were pleased as punch considering the filter
alone was worth more than that --- nevertheless an
assembled, ready-to-go LFH.
And they are indeed the cat's meow for culture work,
but surprisingly not as commonplace as one would
expect. For instance, some time ago I went up to the
local college here in Kamloops to do some private work
which they had graciously loaned their facilities to me
for. When I got there however I find they were using
their fume hoods as a kind of poor-man's glove-box.
Apart from my embarrassment at having to decline the
offer (I decided the cost of my specimens being lost to
contamination wasn't worth the risk of me being
gracious and accepting the circumstances) was the
curious matter of a mycologist being the acting Dean of
the Science/Forestry wing at the time. I would have
thought that LFHs would have been his first order of
business! <g> Oh, well. The social-sciences need their
specimens as well <g>.
Gary Williams
Ken Hoover wrote:
> In <3qvls2$m6r at ixnews3.ix.netcom.com> jimcald at ix.netcom.com (James
> Caldwell) writes:
>> I just finished an article for a beer magazine on how to build a
>> laminar flow hood (for about 100 bucks). Since I got the idea
>> originally from Stamet's book on mushroom culturing, it occurred to me
>> that some readers of this group might be interested as well. I'll fax
>> or snail mail copies to any interested party.
>>> Wow! I grossly underestimated the interest in this article; I got
> more than 20 requests and 24hours haven't even elapsed. I have been
> E-mailing a text version of the article to those who have requested it.
> If you desire the article with photos and simple drawings (not really
> necessary IMHO) please send me a SASE at
>> Jim Caldwell
> 9180 Nana Russell Rd.
> Owings, MD 20736
>> (I'll spring for the postage for non-US addresses if you send a
> self-addressed envelope)
>> In the meantime, requests for the article text or questions can be
> directed to me at jimcald at ix.netcom.com
>> For the curious, the key to my design was the use of an inexpensive
> high output (520 cfm) radial output fan with back-curved impellers, and
> downsizing the HEPA filter to 12" x 24". Going to a larger filter
> (which the fan will handle) would up the cost from about $100 to $140
> or so. Sources for the above parts are included in the article.
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